China: Woman sues China security bureau over video

The wife of a Chinese human rights lawyer said on Monday she is suing the public security bureau for accusing her in an online propaganda video of fomenting “colour revolution.”

Li Wenzu’s husband Wang Quanzhang took on a number of civil rights cases considered sensitive by the ruling Communist party and was detained last summer.

His employer, Beijing’s Fengrui law firm, was at the centre of last year’s so-called “709 crackdown” which saw some 200 legal staff and activists detained.

A propaganda video posted last week to the social media account of a department of China’s public security bureau accused activists of being in league with foreign organisations trying to undermine national security and foment “colour revolution” against the government.

It twice includes footage of Li calling for the return of her husband and of others detained. The “colour” term is used to describe a series of anti-government revolts in the former Soviet Union and Middle East.

Over footage of Syrian refugees, the video said: “’Colour revolutions’ have successfully turned many countries to war zones and strife, and the sharp claws of the devil have also reached China!”, according to a transcript by civil society website Chinachange.org